Old WV Poet

Forming Community

Oldwvpoet — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:38:03 +0000

The main goal of Mission Raleigh is to reach individuals with the Good News and disciple them into Jesus Followers. We are a holistic ministry and look to aid in meeting social and physical needs as well as the forming of community. It takes a team of committed people to pull this off so please continue to pray for missional lay people to come along side of us.

I am going to write a series on each community we are in and the challenges we face in each ministry. I will focus on five communities. If you have any suggestions, ideas, encouragement please feel free to leave a comment on the blog or e-mail me at scotty@missionraleigh.org

Cedar Point– The Great Commission Community

We have been working in Cedar Point for 15 of the 16 years that Mission Raleigh has existed. We have seen so many changes there over the years. It has gone from a community that would not allow us on property to a community that supplies us with a FREE community center. We have seen God do some amazing things there over the years. It began as community that was majority English speaking to one that was a majority Spanish speaking, and is now a community that does not have a majority language and houses at least 7 different languages. I guess that God was worried that I would get bored so he gave me this challenge to reach a type of community that I have never experienced in 16 years of ministry!

One challenge for me is that I coordinate several ministries to reach the different people groups that live at Cedar Point. To say it nicely, that is way outside my comfort zone. Ask anyone who has worked with me, I am a strong willed leader who works off a vision and lays out how I expect things done. (Some will confirm that with a smile and others with a scowl.) So I am growing in this area.

One thing that I am having a hard time with is that I work with a couple agencies that only work with the refugees. (Trust me I am not talking behind anyone’s back. You may not know this about me but I am pretty good about communicating concerns clearly.) I have a hard time with having ESL only for refugees, while there is a need for Hispanics to learn ESL too. It’s not like I have people lined up at my office door willing to go teach the classes. So I am learning to work with the resources that Christ has provided. There are some Southeastern Seminary students coming to do a Bible study with the Bhutanese but I get a “we’re here to practice” vibe. That’s not my favorite vibe, but they have been faithful and hopefully there will be people to carry on the work. I have seen too many seminary students move on with zero concern about leaving a mission point. The focus must be on the people we are reaching and not on ourselves.

It is our intention to know what people group live behind what door by mid June, then start finding ways to build community from there. We would appreciate your prayers.

Amazing Team

Oldwvpoet — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:03:58 +0000

Hey CP (church people) are you with me?! Keep Praying A little update for you. David is amazing as usual doing everything I ask after short arguments. Coxy (we have 2 Davids) has helped McManus and outfitted sinks! Aaron is great swinging 6 pound sledges and lugging trash down steep steps with Marcy and Cathy. Myrtle has done everything and Clyde has too. Ralph has led the kitchen crew redoing the kitchen and Kristi has been right there for me. Torrie and Mrs Betty have been setting up a library. Kallie has done everything I asked. Erik has taken my abuse and been a great Lieutenant. My job is easy with a great team like this! A great day at work They keep finding more projects for us and we have Three more to do 4.5 days of work!

Every Now and Then You Just Need to Hold a Newspaper

Oldwvpoet — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:38:10 +0000

I love technology! I am 47 years old and I have an iPod, Droid, Laptop, SLR digital camera, Hard Drive Video Camera, Blue Rae video player, 42” HD TV and we don’t have time to get into my kitchen toys. Last Christmas Kristi got me a Sony Reader. We returned it quickly; I finally hit a piece of technology that I had no desire to use.

I did not like reading books on a screen, which is funny considering that I read countless blogs all day long on my computer screen. If I want to read a book I need to feel the paper between my fingers, dog ear pages, write notes in the column, and highlight great passages. Reading was not fun for me on my Sony.

The reason I write about this is because I had my full realization today at breakfast while I sat in my quite corner with my Sugar Free, Non-Fat, Vanilla Latte reading a newspaper. I don’t read newspapers as much as I use too. I would rather get my news from the internet, blog and my NPR. Yet today I desired to have my fingers smudged from a dying print media. It was Zen like! It shot me back to 1980 and setting in Hardees with my dad before school reading the sports page over a Steak and Egg biscuit. It was not only nostalgic but it was real. I guess every now and then you just need to hold a newspaper.

Fingerprints on God’s Walls

Oldwvpoet — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:26:07 +0000

I have been overwhelmed by the Freedom I have in Christ as of late. It is really sad that allow legalist teaching to rob me of the joy from this freedom for much of my Christian life.

Romans 8:38-39 has reinforced that joy of late.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:38 -39

Wow what a statement. Thank you Paul! I find the thing that often makes feel like I am separated from God is my inability to follow the rules. I have never been good at following the rules. I attended an elementary school in WV for the first 3 years of my educational life. Mabscott Elementary was all about rules. We had to walk with our hands behind our back between classes so not to get fingerprints on the wall. We walked to “recess” and had to wait to be dismissed to whatever type of recreation was planned for us that day, usually calisthenics. Finally we had time everyday to just sit quietly at our desks. Needless to say I did not do well in this school. I would be physically ill at the prospect of going to school. I lived in trouble.

I treated Christianity like I was at Mabscott for much of my Christian life. I did not have joy because I kept leaving fingerprints on God’s walls. Who knew that God didn’t really sweat fingerprints on his walls?

God wants the best for us that is why we have the law. It makes us realize our need of a Savior and it shows what would be best for our lives. A goal set before us. Yet, failing to keep the letter of the law will not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Whew, what a relief!

Taco Salad

Oldwvpoet — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:51:51 +0000

I am trying to cook at home more these days. I am trying to do it for various reasons. I am tired of eating out, Dr. Bills are keeping me broke, I have random youth crashing at my place, and we like it. I am trying not to cook complex dishes I cooked when I was a Chef, but simple and quick dishes.

My schedule is beyond crazy so things must be simple. The cooking is never what keeps me from cooking as much as the cleaning. Here is a simple 1 pan dish that we Love.

Ingredients:

1 pound Ground Beef
½ head Lettuce
1 small Onion
1 medium Tomato
1 bag Shredded Cheese
8 oz Sour Cream
1 Bag Tortilla Chips
1 Package Taco Seasoning

Shred the Lettuce
Chop the Tomato
Fine Dice the Onion
Cook and Drain the Ground Beef
Add the Taco seasoning and cook per package directions

Place the Chips on a plate
A layer of Cheese
A layer of Ground Beef
A layer of Onion and Tomato
A layer of Lettuce
Top with Sour Cream
Eat like Nachos

Feed 6

I Cried Today When I Read That JD Salinger Had Died

Oldwvpoet — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:50:31 +0000

It was the summer of 1977, unemployment was at 7.7% and gas cost .62 cents per gallon (Give Carter time and he will fix that!). There was no e-mail (except for the CIA) but you could mail a letter for .13 cents. You could buy a new house for around $54,000 or a new Camaro (really the only car to own in the seventies) for $6,000 but keep in mind the average income was 13,5000. Now imagine it is mid June of 1977. The Simlmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien was the best selling novel (Than would have made me smile) and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” would have replaced KC and the Sunshine Band’s “I’m Your Boggie Man” as the number 1 single (that would have made my whole face smile). Now imagine you were a 14 year old boy in the summer after 7th Grade. You were having realizations about who you were and didn’t really know how to deal with them. Your mom kept telling you that you had to get serious about school because High School was just around the corner. Your Dad was telling you it was time to give up childish games like football and come to work for him. You were realizing that when your mom told you that you were just different really meant that you were weird. And if all that was not enough it was summer vacation at Myrtle Beach and it was raining!

That is exactly where I was that year. My mom decided the best thing to do was to take us to a used book store to get something to read. My brother had just got me reading last summer when he gave “The Hobbit“ to read while I was bored at his house. Before that the last thing I had read was “The Giving Tree”. As I walked through those stacks of musty paperbacks I stumbled across “The Catcher in the Rye” I figured it to be some sort of baseball book so I picked it up with a grand lack of enthusiasm, since reading a book at the beach was not really what I had in mind.

We get back to the Cottage and open my new book and I read:

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

I was stunned; seriously I must have reread that sentence ten times. I can distinctly remember every time I picked up that book I would read that opening sentence before turning to my bookmark. The only time I ever openly argued with Dr. David Roth, one of 4 English professors who greatly influenced my life, was when he was lecturing on the importance of an opening line and called Salinger’s opening line in “The Catcher in the Rye” clumsy and weak. Yeah, the rest of the class had to listen to us argue about that for the next 15 minutes. But I digress. The rain stopped after that day we bought the book but I didn’t quit reading. I finished the book during that vacation. I read it again that summer and I can’t count the times I have read that book. It helped me made peace with being weird that week. I would even go as far as to say I embraced being weird that week. It carried me through High School.

I went to Concord College in 1982 and forgot everything I had learned from Catcher. I was a business major preparing to take over the Family Business (can you feel my eyes rolling). I joined a Fraternity to find acceptance and popularity. I flunked out in 3 semesters. I came home to go to work and attend
The Greenbriar Community College, where I met another of those English professors Leslie Shaver. She admonished me for studying Business and got me reading and writing for Valley Images our school literary magazine. One assignment she had us to write about the 2 books that most influenced our life. I wrote about “The Giving Tree” and you guessed it “Catcher in the Rye”. When I told her that I was returning to Concord she challenged me to read Catcher. I did and returned to Concord as an English major with a Theater minor. The best move I ever made, because while I did not complete my degree I did meet my life partner and wifey Kristi Brewer

Who I am today is greatly influenced by a man I never met, JD Salinger. His novel effects how I see myself and effects how I work with the at-risk youth that I love so dearly. Mr. Salinger was the type of author that you wanted to call up and talk to about his book. I use to dream of having coffee with this man. However he chose to retreat from personal fame and allow his art to speak for itself– unexplained, maybe we could all learn from that decision. He once said about himself, “I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.” I guess that is on explanation of his withdrawing from society but maybe a better one would be this quote, “An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.”

I sat in McDonalds today drinking Coffee and crying while I read that JD Salinger had died at 91. I hope he left a trunk full of short stories and novels to be published. Yet, I only want them published if that was his desire. I would hate to see his cherished privacy invaded by them being published against his wishes. As I sit here with my copy of Catcher on my desk waiting to be read once again, I find comfort in knowing that this classic that has transcended generations will allow me to remember my friend.

Zen Poetry

Oldwvpoet — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:13:54 +0000

Let it fill you
as water pumped
into a cistern.

Let it kiss you
while caressing your neck
like a lover

Let it wake you
from comfort
and leave you

Let it whispers to you
a voice within your head
that you question.

Let it haunt you
causing you to jump
at the least little sound

Let it write you

Practicle Poetry

Oldwvpoet — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:35:59 +0000

We are having a Talent and Testimony night at our church tonight. It is usually singing and testimonies. But our Worship Leader loves to put me in the most awkward of positions by having me read some poetry. It is well know that I can not sing. I like to say the only 2 places they allow me to sing is the Nursing Home where they can’t hear and the prison where they can’t leave. Aaron likes to introduce other talents beside singing so I will be the only person to read a poem. It is awkward but I will do it. As I looked over my writings to pick out the poems I found this poem that I wrote years ago. Its a bit of foolish verse but I like it and thought I would share it.

Practical Poetry

I sat down in my big chair
To read a little Billy Collins today
I did not get very far
Because of the voices of ghosts.

I could hear my fathers sigh,
As he mumbles under his breath,
“That will not get you far,
why waste the day.”

I could hear my mother scold
(She has never said anything under her breath.)
“Read something real
a practical book is what you need.”

As I shook those old voices from my head
Something moved in the corner.
I jerked my head,
Only to see a Roach.

I jumped from chair barefoot
(because shoes hurt my ankles)
and rushed to the scene.
I took a swing and missed.

Then he moved again.
I brought my copy of “Picnic Lighting”
Down fast and sharp
And smashed it on the floor

Parents are not always right,
Old voices are a joke
My practical poetry took me far
And the roach is dead on the floor.

Broken Heart for Haiti

Oldwvpoet — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:28:43 +0000

I have been allowed to work all around the world. I have worked with the Lei people of China, Orphans in India, people living in real slums in Accra Ghana, and with the poverty stricken people of Haiti. My world view has been greatly changed from these experiences. It has changed who I am and how I view the world. Nothing will change your heart about a people like spending time with people.

My heart is broken for Haiti right now. In all my travels my heart has never bonded with any people like it has bonded with Haiti. I fell in love with the people on my first trip and that love grew over the next 2 trips. While I have not been to Haiti in several years, it allows me to understand how Paul felt when he talked about his desire to return places; I am actively involved with Haitians in America. Just the thought of the people having to deal with yet another disaster on that precious little island is overwhelming to me. I am working hard to make contacts with my friends over there to see what we can do to help.

The community of Christians must never be localized. We must not be defined by borders or patriotism. We must act like a global family and pray for each other. After we pray we must sacrifice. Sacrifice by giving up the latest WANT we have to meet needs of brothers and sisters. Sacrifice by giving up comfort and go get muddy and dirty helping a brother rebuild.

Haiti is hurting right now. Let’s not just talk about our faith right now and live it for the world to see. Let the Church come to the rescue of Haiti

Don’t Break the Ice

Oldwvpoet — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:02:21 +0000

One thing we have learned in Mission Raleigh is Computers connected to the Internet will attract youth. We have used this for years at Raleigh North, Cedar Point and Bradford Crossings. We tend to have a hang out time where youth can get on the computer and just chill till time for the lesson.

Over the past few years at Raleigh North every computer would be full and we would have to make them change shifts so everyone could have time on the computer. Well yesterday was quite different. While the computer were there and we had several youth using them we had more playing Chess, Don’t Break the Ice, Bop it and interacting and laughing and having an amazing time of fellowship instead of everyone in their own little cyber world. The cool thing about this is we have not planned or even tried to bring on this change. It was all God. I rolled my chair back to William and said
Do you see this?” I was an amazing thing to see happen.

One of my favorite stories in the bible is in 1 Kings; right after Elijah ran from Jezebel like little girl and hid in the mountains God came to speak to him:

And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” — 1 Kings 19:11–13

I have learned over the 15 years that God has allowed me to serve him, that while we look for God in big events we usually find him in the little things. I have been to youth events attended by hundreds of youth but I saw God more clearly around that table with youth laughing and playing than at any of those events.